Research & Expertise news at HSE University

Contrary to established theory, globalisation has increased, rather than reduced, inequality in emerging economies. To solve this problem, more opportunities should be created enabling people to acquire new skills. Nobel Prize laureate and Professor at Harvard, Eric S. Maskin, who is also Chief Research Fellow at the International Centre of Decision Choice and Analysis of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and Honorary Professor at HSE University, shared his insights on the topic.

HSE University hosted an international mini-conference titled 'Search for new ways to develop Russian-Italian cooperation in the field of Biomedicine,' attended by scientists from both countries and HSE Rector Nikita Anisimov.

The Russian Technical Committee for the Standardization of ‘Artificial intelligence’ (TC164), together with the Chamber for Indo Russo Technology Collaboration and the RUSSOFT Non-profit Partnership of Software Developers, has published new White Papers related to Artificial Intelligence Conformity Assessment. It reflects the approaches to the standardization and ethical regulation of AI technologies in two pilot industries — healthcare and agriculture.

An international team of researchers including scientists at HSE University have tested 11 communication strategies aimed to encourage pro-environmental behaviours. The sample included nearly 60,000 individuals from 63 countries. While interventions aimed at reducing psychological distance from climate problems proved to be effective, those targeting behaviours which require more effort, such as tree-planting or reducing one's carbon emissions, were not as successful. The study findings have been published in Scientific Advances.

Researchers at HSE University, having examined the role of daydreaming in the Russian cultural context, conclude that constructive daydreaming can help people with gaining insight into their life's trajectory, fostering personal growth, discovering existential meaning, enhancing psychological wellbeing, and cultivating a balanced temporal perspective. The study findings have been published in Cultural-Historical Psychology.

An international team of researchers, including neuroscientists at HSE University, has developed a computational model for simulating semantic dementia, a severe neurodegenerative condition that progressively deprives patients of their ability to comprehend the meaning of words. The neural network model represents processes occurring in the brain regions critical for language function. The results indicate that initially, the patient's brain forgets the meanings of object-related words, followed by action-related words. Additionally, the degradation of white matter tends to produce more severe language impairments than the decay of grey matter. The study findings have been published in Scientific Reports.

From April 26 to May 7, a team of professors and students from HSE University-St Petersburg conducted a field study in the Indian Himalayas. Below, Aleksei Sorbale, academic supervisor of the Bachelor's programme 'Political Science and World Politics', and Pavel Bazarov, a student of the Master's programme 'Global and Regional History', speak about their research and share their impressions of the expedition.

The HSE Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence for Cognitive Sciences (AICS) has launched regular seminars, offering students and scientists from various universities and research centres the opportunity to share their latest research and discuss the most recent developments in artificial intelligence in a friendly and constructive atmosphere. The first seminar was held on May 15.